Fleurs De Lys, and Other Poems   By: Arthur Weir (1864-1902)

FLEURS DE LYS

AND

OTHER POEMS.

BY

ARTHUR WEIR, B.A. Sc.

He only is a poet who can find In sorrow happiness, in darkness light, Love everywhere; and lead his fellow kind By flowery paths towards life's sunny height.

TO

WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH SOMERVILLE WEIR,

HIS MOST SEVERE AND KINDLY CRITICS,

THIS VOLUME IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED BY THEIR SON.

PREFACE

The name FLEURS DE LYS has been chosen for the Canadian Poems in the early portion of this book, because the scenes and incidents they describe belong to the Monarchial, or Fleur de Lys, period of France in Canada. The royal crest during the seventeenth century is depicted upon the cover.

Many of these poems have already appeared in the columns of the Carnival and Jubilee Star , the Toronto Week , the University Gazette , and the Montreal Gazette , as well as in the Daily and Weekly Star , and it is the kindly reception which they met with that has led the author to publish them in this more permanent form.

Some of the poems were written at twenty, and the latest at twenty three, so that the author hopes the critics will consider this volume rather as a bud than as a flower, and will criticize it with the view to aiding him to avoid faults in the future rather than to censuring him for errors of the present and past.

To Mr. George Murray, of this city, the author is deeply indebted for encouragement when encouragement was most needed, and for much valuable assistance in the selection and revision of these verses for publication.

It is hoped that the notes at the end of this book will throw sufficient light upon the verses to make them perfectly intelligible to the reader.

December, 1st, 1887.

CONTENTS

Ode for the Queen's Jubilee

FLEURS DE LYS.

The Captured Flag Père Brosse L'Ordre de Bon Temps Champlain The Priest and the Minister Pilot The Secret of the Saguenay Jules' Letter The Oak Nelson's Appeal for Maisonneuve

RED ROSES.

To One Who Loves Red Roses Three Sonnets Long Ago At Chateauguay A Birthday The Lovers The Sea Shell A January Day Remembrance In Absence Love Guides Us The Lover's Appeal

OTHER POEMS.

The Spirit Wife Rhodope's Shoe Hope and Despair Carlotta Equality Lachine De Salaberry at Chateauguay Tennyson At Rainbow Lake The Race My Treasure Welcoming the New Year A Greater Than He Life in Nature Winter and Summer Dauntless A Child's Kiss The Grave and the Tree A Mother's Jewels Notes

FLEURS DE LYS AND OTHER POEMS .

ODE FOR THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE. 1837 1887.

I

Sailor William is dead. And now Toll the great bells disconsolate. Let the maiden have time for tears Ere you set on her gentle brow England's glittering crown of state. Heavy burden for eighteen years. Grant the maiden some weeping space Ere on her youthful brow you place England's crown. Once her stately head it presses, Fifty years it must rest on her tresses Till their brown Turns to white beneath King Time's caresses Grant her weeping space.

II.

Set the crown on the maiden's brow, And silence the bells disconsolate. Peal! Ye loud joy bells, now; Over city and wold let your echoes reverberate. Peal! for the crowning of smiles and the death of tears, Peal! for the crowning of hopes and the death of fears, Peal! for a Queen who shall rule us for fifty years. The maiden is crowned with her glorious crown, Heavy with care; Yet it shall never burden her down Into despair. We will watch over her with our love, And our loyalty prove. We will bear, each, his share Of the worry, grief, and pain That may seek to mar her reign.

III.